Comparing Gas Spend to Gas Prices

I found raleighgasprices.com which had the best information I could find on local gas prices (turns out lots of cities have these sites as well). It didn't have avg historical prices, but it did have a 3 yr chart with avg raleigh gas prices so I was able to estimate a monthly avg from the chart for the past 3 yrs, not great, but good enough to compare to my gas spend.

FYI: I drive a 1998 Nissan Sentra GXE with a EPA Fuel Economy rating of 27 city, 36 hwy.

If nothing else this helps identify months where I had used significantly more gas (such as 06/2003 and the earlier part of 2005). However, I definitely see why I feel like I am spending alot more on gas.

Back in 2001 I had set my gas budget to $75 a month, my 3 month rolling avg gas spend has gone from ~$71/mo at the end of 2001 to ~$168/mo in 8/2005 - that is more than a 136% increase!

Not fun. My income has roughly only risen ~31% in the same time frame (which I thought was pretty good).

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